Travelog for: Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Daddy,

today we took a walk in the neigbour town Solingen. Katja wanted to show me Schloss Burg, a medieval castle. Katja's friend Kerstin went with us, this time without her dog Pepe.

We parked the car in Solingen-Unterburg, one of the oldest districts of Solingen. The river Wupper is flowing though this district. High on a hill above Unterburg you can find Schloss Burg. You have to walk there, always uphill or you can take the cablecar. This is the valley station of the cablecar. Of course we had to walk uphill.



You can find really old houses here, mostly those timber-framed houses.



In Solingen they have a trolleybus system with a reverser disk. There are only three reverser disks in use worldwide: The one in Solingen and two in England.







Here you can see the cablecar going uphill.



We had to walk uphill, for hours as it seemed to me. We rested in an outlook pavilion, where we had a fantastic view across the valley where we had come from.



The ceiling of the pavilion is decorated with the city arms of the surrounding towns, so here is also the city arms of Remscheid.





In the background you can see the castle.



We reached an outdoor facility first, here you can find memorials for the dead of both World Wars.









We went to the castle then. The castle was built in early 12th century on a mountain over the river Wupper. It was enlarged later, sometimes destroyed in wars and also fires. It was reconstructed in 1925 A.D.

Unfortunately we could not get to the courtyard because it was prepared for some events in the following days, especially for Walpurgis Night.

This is the gate, facing the street.



Inside the castle complex you can find several artisan shops.









We left the castle than and walked on through the outskirts of Burg. 



I saw syringa in a garden.



You can find farms here, pastures, forrests and large piles of tree trunks.



Here someone decorated his fence with planted shoes.



When we reached the valley again we saw a pump which was once used in a nearby drinking water reservoir.







We walked back along the river Wupper.



This is an ear trumpet which is intensifyieng the sound of the flowing water.



Here is a weir. We rested here for a while.





We reached the car than and went home. Tomorrow we will go to the fun fair

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Daddy,
we visited Cologne today. Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city and is the largest city in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the Romans in the year 38 BC. Cologne lies on the River Rhine.

We went to Cologne by train and reached Cologne Central station after about an hour train ride.



The first thing you see when you leave the central station is Cologne Cathedral. The cathedral is a World Heritage Site, being one of the best-known architectural monuments in Germany, and Cologne's most famous landmark. Cologne Cathedral is one of the world's largest churches, being the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Building of the Gothic church began in 1248 and took, with several interruptions, until 1880 to complete – a period of more than six hundred years. It is about 144 metres long, 86 m wide and its two towers are 157 m tall.



In the afternoon we took much better photos of the Cathedral, with much better light incidence than. We went inside the Cathedral. Of course I will show you the inside.





We went to the shopping streets than, especially to Schildergasse.









Many peple are riding bike here, because it's really flat here.

We went to the Altstadt (old town) than. This is Guerzenich, part of the old town.



From here we went to Heumarkt. We had lunch here.





This is one of the most famous pubs here, Paeffgen.



More pictures of the old town are following.









Finally we reached River Rhine! There are some excursion boats waiting for passengers.



Here you can see Hohenzollernbrücke (Hohenzollern Bridge)  which is a bridge for rail and pedestrian traffic.



Back to the old town with it's narrow lanes than ...









We left the old town and decided to take a walk along the river.









Here you can see the Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolate museum). We didn't go inside because we enjoyed the sunshine, besides the museum was really crowded with visitors.

Katja told us that they have a fountain with molten chocolate, you can dip cookies into the chocolate.





They have an outlook platform on the museum, from  here you have a really good overview.





We went back to the cathedral than. On our way we saw many more interesting things.





In the background of the next photo you can see one of the most famous breweries of Cologne: Früh Kölsch. They are brewing Kölsch beer here, a top-fermented beer.





It's almost impossible to take a photo of the complete cathedral because it is simply too large and standing among many buildings. But we tried our best to take some photos showing some details.











I forgot to mention, but we relaesed six ToyVoyagers here in Cologne.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

lots of news from Remscheid. Theodore left yesterday, duckling Nathalie went with him. Today Roo and Ewan E. Ewok arrived today. We took them with us when we had to do some shopping during Katja's lunch break.

We walked along the shopping street.



Did I already show you this funny fountain? Maybe I did, but it was probably covered and out of action than.





Do you remember that I showed you the building site of the train station a few weeks ago? It is looking much better now, almost finished.



This is a ring road which leads you directly to the city centre...



... and to the bus terminal.



Once again the city hall and the market place with the shopping mall.





We had to go to work than.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,
in the evening we took a short walk to the municipal park. Ewan needed to see some trees.



This is the pond with ducks and turtles living there.



Here you can see the outskirts of Remscheid and Wuppertal, the neighbour city.





Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Daddy,

today we visited Wuppertal.

Wuppertal is the neighbour town of Remscheid, famous for the worldwide one and only Monorail Suspension Railway (Schwebebahn). The suspension railway travels along a route about 13 kilometres long, about 12 metres above the surface of the river Wupper and approximately 8 m above the city streets. At one point the railway even crosses the A46 motorway. The entire trip takes about 30 minutes. One of the stations is "Zoo/Stadion". Here we entered the Schwebebahn.



This is the station where we left it. A train was coming in right than.



We wanted to visit the botanical garden, situated high on the steep slope of the valley. For pedestrians you can find many long stairs leading uphill, like this one:



In this part of the town which is called "Hardt" you can find many pretty old villas.



We reached the botanical garden than. In the background you can see Elisenturm, an outlook tower which is 21 m high. The botanical garden was founded in 1890 as a school garden.

On the left side you can see a greenhouse, than the Elisenturm and the entrance area of the garden.



First we climbed onto the tower to have an overview. From here you can see the city lying in the valley.







We walked through the garden and saw lots of pretty and interesting plants.





Here we are sitting under a date palm.



The botanical garden is running together with the park "Hardtanlage". Here you can see many people relaxing in the grass.



Again an overview across the city, this time from the edge of the park.



We walked back to the city centre.







This is the famous quarter "Luisenviertel", where they have many pubs and restaurants.



In this pub we enjoyed  a cool drink.



Katja wanted to show us the Briller Viertel (Bril quarter), which is a quarter with a lot of villas. First we walked upstairs again, but the overview was worth the effort.







This was a really nice day, although a little bit exhausting.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Daddy,
I'm coming home for a while.



See you soon
Decker

Decker arrived safely home - many thanks to everyone who hosted him and made his journey such a success!

Will post some pics later.

Neil